editor's review

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Welcome to the Natty Narwhal edition of Lubuntu, a lightweight and open source operating system derived from the world's most popular free Linux distribution, Ubuntu, and built around the fast and traditional LXDE desktop environment.

Availability, supported architectures, boot options

This Lubuntu release was officially announced on April 28, 2011 and supported with security patches and software updates until October 28, 2012. It is available for download as a single Live CD ISO image that can be used on either 32-bit or 64-bit hardware platforms.

The boot prompt lets end-users to start the live environment without installing anything, run a system memory diagnostic test, boot an existing operating system from the first disk drive, as well as to install the OS on a local disk without testing it (not recommended).

Lightweight desktop environment with top-notch apps

As mentioned, Lubuntu uses the LXDE project as its default desktop environment, which comprises of a single taskbar located on the bottom edge of the screen, from where the user can easily and quickly open applications, interact with running programs, as well as the functions integrated in the system tray area.

Bottom line

After numerous daily tests, we can report that the Lubuntu 11.04 operating system is quite stable, fast and reliable, providing users with a traditional, familiar and somewhat productive desktop environment based on LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). It can turn old and semi-old computers into modern workstations.